Bridge damaged, engineers measuring extent of impact, police say
Traffic was heavily backed up in Mississauga and Milton Wednesday morning after the dump truck with its box raised slammed into an overpass and multiple cars crashed nearby, police say.
Lanes of Highway 401 were closed after the dump truck container became stuck around 7 a.m.. Police say the truck was travelling in the eastbound express lanes of the highway approaching Mavis Road at the time.
OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the truck had just emptied a load at a nearby construction site when the driver drove off with the box raised and hit the next eastbound overpass.
The “box should be down when you’re driving,” Schmidt said in a video posted on Twitter.
Schmidt says the overpass has been damaged and engineers are on site assessing the extent of the impact.
Express lanes are expected to remain closed for several more hours, he said.
Not long after the dump truck crash, Schmidt posted another video on Twitter about a three-car crash in the collectors lanes, right next to where the truck hit the overpass.
“People not paying attention,’ he said. “If you’re going down the road, you’ve gotta look forward and be aware of changing traffic.”